Ecuador has withdrawn from Unasur

The President of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, announced Wednesday the decision to withdraw his country from UNASUR and request the return of the building housing the general secretariat of the agency located on the outskirts of Quito .

"Today, I wish to communicate to Ecuador our final withdrawal from Unasur"Moreno said on radio and television, adding that he was considering handing over the regional bloc headquarters to his country's indigenous university.

Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Paraguay suspended their activities in 2018 within the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) in the absence of 39, a secretary general. With the abandonment of Ecuador, the bloc, composed in principle of 12 nations, was reduced to a group of five.

The exit of Ecuador implies that the country stops contributing economically to the agency, whose headquarters had been given by Quito during the government of the former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017).

"We will stop participating in all activities of this organization, we will not record a cent more, nor a contribution to the budget of the organization"Moreno said.

The Ecuadorian leader said that his country intended to recover the headquarters of the organization, a building financed by Quito and whose cost had risen to about 43 million dollars.

"As legitimate owners, we also requested the return to Ecuador of the headquarters building," said Moreno, who also stressed that will remove the statue of the former Argentine President Néstor Kirchner, located at the entrance to the square.

"In March, we will have a meeting of presidents in our country to give impetus to the Prosur project, which is a forum for the development of South America", said the president of Chile at a press conference in the palace of La Moneda.

He also explained that Prosur will be an organ "without ideologies or bureaucracy" that will strengthen the integration, the economy and the trade of the countries of the region.

But he specified that Only nations that meet such demands as "the full validity of democracy and the rule of law and full respect for human rights and freedoms" can enter.

"You note that only Venezuela is excluded because Venezuela does not comply" with the requirements, said Piñera.

The presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Venezuela, allied countries of the region: Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru, Guyana and Suriname are invited to this meeting.

"Unasur failed because of its excess of ideology and bureaucracy and resulted in no result (…) Prosur will not be an ideological forum like that of Unasur," said Piñera.

Unasur began operations in 2011 under the wing of the majority of left-wing presidents who then ruled South America, including Lula Da Silva (Brazil) and Hugo Chávez (Venezuela).